Fitzgerald confirms Rena Buckley will be absent for 2018 campaign

BY EMMA DUFFY

CORK’s ladies footballers will be without the services of dual star Rena Buckley again this year, manager Ephie Fitzgerald has confirmed.

The 18-time All-Ireland senior champion opted to concentrate solely on the camogie set-up last year as she was named captain.

In September, she steered Paudie Murray’s charges to glory and collected a remarkable 18th All-Ireland medal – her seventh camogie Celtic Cross – and became the most decorated player in Gaelic games.

Buckley is yet to feature for the camogie side this year and has passed on captaincy duties to goalkeeper Aoife Murray.

And Fitzgerald confirmed that she won’t feature for the footballers in 2018.

'I was hoping Rena would come back but no, she’s not,' he said on the 2018 TG4 Ladies Football All-Star Tour in Bangkok.

'You’d nearly be frightened to look at how many we’ve lost, but are still very competitive.

'The changeover happened very dramatically in that lots went together. Vera Foley is huge loss, Deirdre (O’Reilly), the list goes on and on and on.'

2016 senior Players’ Player of the Year Bríd Stack’s inter-county future is still uncertain, the All-Ireland winning manager continued.

'She’s not retired, she’s had a lot of injuries,' he said of the 11-time All-Ireland champion.

'Likewise, with all of the girls, I was hoping maybe we’d get one or two back but it’s up to them really.

'I don’t push that. I wouldn’t ask if Bríd wants to come back, she knows she's welcome. I’ve told her that several times.

'Bríd has got married now and she has other commitments, she started up her own business so there’s an awful lot going on for her.'